Add Your Voice to Support Jailed Atheist in Indonesia

April 25, 2012

In January, Alexander Aan, a 30-year-old in West Sumatra, Indonesia,
posted messages to Facebook expressing his lack of belief in God, as
well as some satirical cartoons about the prophet Muhammad, and as a
result was attacked by an angry mob and then arrested by police under
the charge of blasphemy.

The Center for Inquiry needs you to help come to Alexander’s aid.

Alexander did nothing more than exercise the most basic of human rights,
his freedom to express his beliefs, and now he is in great jeopardy—not
only has he lost his freedom, but many are calling for his death.

CFI wants to make the voices of those who support Alexander loud and
clear to the Indonesian government. The Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC) is organizing a letter-writing campaign on Alexander’s behalf,
and we at CFI urge you to take part.

Visit this page to have your say
and show your support for Alexander and basic human freedoms. We
encourage you to use the text below as your template for you to copy and
paste into the web form, but please feel free to add your own thoughts
as you see fit. (AHRC has provided its own sample text on its web page,
but you can simply remove it and replace it with ours or your own.) Make
sure you keep all bracketed text as it is, such as “[salutation],” as
it will be automatically filled in once the letter is sent.

Let’s show Alexander and the whole world that we will not be silent when
governments suppress, persecute, and jail those who speak their mind.

SUGGESTED TEXT FOR LETTER:

Dear [salutation],
Name of victim: Alexander Aan
Names of alleged perpetrators: Police officers of Pulau Punjung
Sub-District Police Station, prosecutors of Sijunjung District
Prosecutors Office, potentially the panel of judges at the Muaro
Sijunjung District Court who examines Alex’s case.
Date of incident: 18 January 2012 - present (ongoing)
Place of incident: Dharmasraya, Padang, West Sumatra

I am writing to voice my concern regarding the case of Alexander Aan, an
atheist civil servant in Dharmasraya, Padang, West Sumatra. Alexander
has been arrested and charged with blasphemy and promoting atheism for
posting a status on Facebook questioning the existence of God. He is
also alleged to have disseminated religious hatred on the Internet by
posting a note and comic on Facebook entitled ‘The Prophet Muhammad was
attracted to his own daughter-in-law’ and ‘The Prophet Muhammad had been
sleeping with his wife’s maid.’

Alexander’s postings were an exercise of free expression of his
religious beliefs, and Indonesia is a state party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees freedom
of religion. His posts did not incite, condone, or glorify violence or
persecution of anyone, Muslim or otherwise. Though some have found his
posts insulting, there is no human right to freedom from feeling
offended. Alexander has committed no crime and should be released.

I was alerted to Alexander’s situation by the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a
nonprofit organization based in the U.S. that stands for science,
reason, and secular values such as the separation of religion from
government and the basic freedoms of thought, conscience, and speech.
CFI has affiliate organizations and branches all over the world, and
holds special consultive status at the United Nations under the UN
Economic and Social Council. I stand with CFI in its support of
Alexander Aan and of all those who are persecuted for their beliefs—or
lack of beliefs—wherever on this planet they reside.